It’s the first day of a new year. Three hundred and sixty-five days stretch out before us with all the shimmering promise of good intention. In a few weeks, you may find yourself hitting a wall and slipping back into old habits no matter how much you swore you would do better this year to work toward your goals (whatever they may be). To help you combat that mid-January battle to keep your resolutions, we’ve got a few tips.
Image via debbie-debbiedoos.com
1. Identify and work with your strengths. Start with the obvious ones. For example, if you’re a morning person, harness that AM energy and focus it on your resolution. Then think about your past successes, even in unrelated areas, to find new strengths by recognizing which aspects contributed to those accomplishments. Have you always been great at crafting? If your resolution this year is to save money, try putting your creativity to work by fixing up Goodwill® finds instead of buying anything new! Debbie of the blog Debbie Doo’s did this for her $4 kitchen art and look how beautifully it turned out!
Image via dcgoodwill.org
2. Work smarter, not necessarily harder. While giving your 100 percent is the very best way to reach your goals, you won’t be able to do this if you don’t also take some time everyday to decompress. This tip shared by Goodwill Greater Washington (DC) is actually a lesson I’ve learned the hard way. I have tried too hard to do everything and ended up a stressed, exhausted, unproductive mess. Instead of pushing yourself to the limit, look for ways that you can work smarter to get more out of your time and still invest time in yourself so you can start each day refreshed and inspired.
Image via goodwillvirginia.org
3. Do what you can in advance. The hardest part of most things is their beginning. Whether it’s getting out of bed an hour earlier or picking yourself up off of the couch to get down to business, starting is hard. Ride the momentum of a good workout, for example, by setting your clothes out for tomorrow’s run or dedicate the last few minutes of a satisfying cleaning binge to creating some tidy reminder to clean up again tomorrow. Laura of Goodwill of Central and Coastal Virginia (Richmond) pre-plans her motivation by posting visual reminders around her home! She also made sure that she had comfortable and fun running attire (which she scored for a great price at Goodwill) so there were no excuses available when she opened her closet in the morning.
What are your New Year’s goals and how will you keep yourself motivated to accomplish them? Goodwill’s year-round mission is to help others in finding success, especially when they face challenges so by shopping at and donating to Goodwill, you help provide job training and placement opportunities for individuals in your community. So when you shop at Goodwill for the necessities for your New Year’s resolution, you’re also helping others accomplish theirs!
